A Television Dinner at Andy's

Back in 1969 or 1070 I had just become involved in public television as the chief aide to Frank Pace who had been appointed by President Johnson as the first Chairman of the Board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - this was time of the real beginning of what we now know of as pulic tv. We were living in Rowayton , Connecitcut, a wonderful, almost unspoiled town on the Long IslandSound. This small town was notable among the other suburbs as having a number of writers , painters, journalists and a playwright. Jimmy Ernst, Gabor Peterdi, Harry Marinsk , Dick Griffiths among others....It wasn't an expensive place to live or rent in those days and some of the artists of all kinds in my generation were beginning to come into their own.

Andy Rooney - at that time either with CBS or NBC I don't remeber which - lived about five miles from our house with his wife Marg who taught my kids at the local elementary school. One summer night Andy and Marg invited us to a small dinner party at their house. On arrival I was pleaed to see that one of the other guesta was Harry Reasoner who was further advanced in his career and had already made a considerable mark as a television journalist.

Everything was very pleasant through the cocktail hour, but during dinner Harry made, what seemed to ne. a violent attack on public television. He said that government had no business getting involved in Tv - whether it was news or entertainment and surely no journalist who was getting paid directly or indirectly with Federal money could be counted on to give unbiased reports. I took strong exception to this point of view and the argument got quite out of hand to the somewhat embarrassment of the other guests....But before leaving it calmed down and we all shook hands amiocably, at least on the surface.

The nest morning about ten o'clock I was in my office at WNET/Thirteen , the NYC public tv station, when a messenger arrived with Harry's card and a short note which read: "Ward, last night I broke the cardinal rule of Fairfield County. I discussed a serious subject after more than two martinis. Plse accept my apologies.".. I have always thought that was such a gracious act on Harry's part. In one form or other, I have used it on two occasions in the past forty years of dinner parties when I felt I had perhaps gone too far. Some people, I am sure, would say that I might have used it on more than the two occasions. In succeeding years I got to know Harry and much admired him........This incident came to mind over the weekend as I was watching on C-Span a remarkale interview with Andy Rooney during which he talk about many of his interestiing experiences in WWII.

Churchill: The 19th Century man who saved the Western Wold in the 29th Century

Here are two descriptions of Winston Churchill that I particularly: like:The first is from the opening paragraph of Manchester's second volume on Churchill entitled "Alone".

" There ( Chartwell) among the eighty sheltering acres of beech, oak, lime and chesnut stands the singular country home of England's most singular statesman, a brilliant, domineering, intuitive, inconsiderate, self-centered,emotional, generous, ruthless, visionary, a meglomaniacle and heroic genius who inspirese fear, devotion , rage and admiration among his pees. At the very least he is the greatest Englisman since Disraeli, who grapples with the future because he alone can se it."

Then this from a review of manchester's book in the Washington Post and I am ashamed to say I can't remember the author although I knew him at the time'

"As for the man himself, both these books offer rich testamony to his genius. Churchill was not only great as a man of affairs; he was the complete and tounded person - as poetic as rational,as visionary as practical, as imaginative as he was sturdy. Interga vitae might have been the moto of his life. He conbined artistry with hardheadedness and magnanimity with sturdiness. He really believed in the missions of what he called "Christendom" and " the English speaking people". In the years covered by these volumes he wrote his two volume life of the first Duke of Marlborough, his famous ancestor. published six volumes of war memoirs, the first volume of which sold a quarter of a million copies in one day and made him a fortune. He won a Nobel prize for literature ( none was so richly deserved). He exhibited his paintinga at the Royal Academy abd the Tate Galleries. All the time he fondly tended his goldfish, pigs, cats, swans and race horses and proved himself a gifted farmer and brick layer - and devoted friend.

More than a quarter of a century after his death the memory is unfaded. The"great man" theory of history has given way of late to various mechanistic and and material and determanistic explanations of human behavior and events. But unless human nature changes some future emergency will bring the heroic temper and spirit into demand and readers will be drawn to the story of Winston Churchill to find its ultimate human measure. "Remember," he said to a friend not long before his death'" man is spirit". Manchester's book flawed as it is gives an inkling of that dimension.Gilbert, for his part, is content to report - nay, list - the facts without elaboration or judgment. He has assembled the bricks and mortar but faltered in the task of designing and building. Even affter thousands and thousands of his diligent and monumental pages, Churchill still awaits his Churchill."

The Way out of Iraq

There just is not any easy way out. The Bush-Cheney-Condi-Rummy quartet made such a mess from the beginning. My old mentor , Frank Pace, used to say "good ideas are a dime a dozen; execution is the tough part'. Of course this was not ever a good idea because the objective was too grandiose and there were no existing institutions on which to build once we got Saddam out of the way. The current thought in Washington is put more troops in and I was horrified to see that the Senate Democratic leader seemed to think that was okay IF we could get all the troops out by the end of 2007. The President is desperate to save his own skin in a final fling at "success". Remember toward the end in Viet Nam someone asked the old Senator from Vermont ( I think) ,Senator Austin: "How we get out?" That is simple , he said, by sea....Here we can't even do that. But we need courage to decide to get out and the quartet doesn't have it. Churchill said: Courage is the great quality ; it ensures all the others. Maybe Gates has it.

Next Move in Iraq

12/17/2006 -- No one that I know in my generation thinks that the best move in Irag is to send another 15-20,000 additional combat troops. Did we learn nothing from Viet Nam? Have we learned nothing about the kind of tactics that might be effective against an insurgencY? I hope that if The Decider ( aka God) comes down with this decision, the military - or at least someof them - will scrap their careers and say publicly it is the wrong move. Maybe even Colin Powell will redeem himself and express his view that this will just compound the disaster. If Bush nakes such a decision, it will be to roll the dice in a last ditch effort to save what is left of his reputation and come out with something he can call "victory"...some victory - surrounded by the dead and seriously wounded Americans and the tens of thousands of Iraqies tortured and dead! Let's just say we did our best with best intentions and it did n't work.